Today, the country's top eight teams in the country all play a fellow member of that elite eight. We had it before, of course, last July and the one before. In July 2008, however, we won't, and because the Hurling Development Committee's proposals are seeking permanent status, we probably won't ever again. It had become too predictable, knowing who the All Ireland quarter-finalists would be, and Ned Quinn's HDC rightly decided that had to change. The thing is, will it be changing for the best, and is it the best form of change they could have made?

To the first part of that question, the answer is probably yes. To get to an All Ireland quarter-final next year, you're going to have to have beaten a serious team or two (something Galway didn't require last year and won't this year either). If the HDC's proposals are passed as expected at Congress next month, then only six teams, not eight, will get to play in Croke Park beyond mid-July. To reach an All Ireland quarter-final, it'll be an achievement rather than a formality.

The way it'll work is like this. The winners of Munster and Leinster are through to the All Ireland semi-final, thus resuming a traditional privilege. The beaten provincial finalists are through to the All Ireland quarter final. There they will meet a couple of teams who will have worked to get that far.

Supposing it was in place for this year.

If Clare were to lose to Cork and Laois lose to Offaly, the pair of them would go into a round-robin group with Galway and Antrim, with the top two teams (say, Galway and Clare) emerging to the next round, but crucially, not the All Ireland quarter-final. And suppose Cork lost to Waterford, and Tipp lost to Limerick in the Munster semi-finals, while Dublin and Offaly lost in the Leinster semi-finals. Those four would go into a hat to identify two pairings, say Cork and Offaly, and Tipp and Dublin. The two winners would then go into a hat with Galway and Clare. You could well have Cork-Galway, and Clare-Tipp, all before the All Ireland quarter-final stage. The round-robin format of the past two years, for all its merits, lacked that kind of raw tension and excitement which made Cork and Tipp in Killarney '04 so compelling.

Another point worth noting. While the winners of this year's Christy Ring competition won't have a crack at competing in next year's Liam McCarthy Cup, subsequent Ring Cup winners will, with a play-off at home against the last of the 12 Liam McCarthy Cup teams for the right to play in the McCarthy Cup the following year.

The new format, however, has an obvious downside. This past two years, Kilkenny had to fight for the right to play in an All Ireland semi-final, by beating future league finalists and recent All Ireland finalists in the quarter-finals;

now, if they again negotiate the harmless, Galway-free terrain that is Leinster, they won't. And that's the problem. That Galway aren't in Leinster is the elephant in the room.

According to HDC members, Leinster counties were as opposed to the idea as Galway were, their fear being that every 'Leinster' final in every grade would be a Kilkenny-Galway affair. For the Leinster championship to remain in its current format, however, it needs one of two things to happen in the next two years - either Dublin or Laois to beat Wexford or Offaly, or any of those four to beat Kilkenny. For Leinster to exist, Dublin must thrive.

Last July, Peter Barry attended the Waterford-Galway qualifier instead of the Leinster final. Could you imagine a Corkman wanting to be anywhere else but Thurles last June 25?

The outgoing Munster Council chairman Sean Fogarty got it right in his final address by saying, "The Munster championship has served the GAA well nationally as well as at provincial level. The challenge for the GAA is to create a similar championship amongst the remaining hurling strongholds."

It should have been the challenge of the HDC. Have a tri-province championship featuring Galway, Antrim and teams from Leinster. Play it on a roundrobin basis if necessary, allowing county boards to plan club fixtures and market and sell home games in venues that are otherwise not sustainable and essentially, unjustifiable.

As great as it is having Ger Loughnane back, the shame is he won't be prowling along that line with a provincial championship in his sights. Hurling, contrary to popular consensus, has enough All Ireland contenders. What it lacks is a second competitive championship. It's up to Dublin, Galway and the next HDC to change that.